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Billboard Canada Power Players 2025: OVO CEO Derek “Drex” Jancar’s Success Is Driven By Community
Last night (June 11), Derrick Ross of Slaight Music presented Drex with the Impact Award as part of Billboard Canada Power Players 2025, with a donation to the Remix Project – a testament to the immense influence Drex has had within Canadian music and culture.
The Remix Project started as Inner City Visions in 1999 before rebranding in 2006, driven by a vision to build a hip-hop industry in Canada and to support the burgeoning talent bubbling up in Toronto. The drop-in program offered hip-hop and music-related workshops such as MC battles, DJ showcases and breakdancing. Remix became a registered non-profit charity in 2009, and now offers a variety of programs in its three streams: Recording Arts, Creative Arts and Business Arts.
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Soon, the community took ownership. When the project’s original funding cycle came to an end in 2009, the overwhelming response helped keep it alive.
"We had so many people come and try to help without us really asking. Seeing how much the organization meant to people made it easy for us to wake up every day and figure out how we were going to move forward and raise the money."
It even gave Drex the drive to sign a lease for a new building under his own name after their existing Sudbury Street headquarters was demolished to make way for condos.
“I remember signing a lease for seven years [for] over a million dollars in rent while we had like $70,000 in our bank account," he remembers. "It seems kind of wild right now to sign this paperwork, but this is going to happen. The community is supporting us. We are going to find a way."
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Now, Remix Project has a flagship home at Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts and is recognized by the city for its impact. Remix has produced such star-studded alumni like star singer Jessie Reyez, who got involved with the program while developing her career and has since won four Juno Awards and earned a Grammy nomination. Designer Bryan Espiritu, producers WondaGurl and FrancisGotHeat, entrepreneur Jebril “Fresh” Jalloh and broadcasters Amanda Parris and Tyrone “T-Rex” Edwards all got their start at Remix.
OVO Sound co-founder Noah “40” Shebib was one of the core staff members as a key figure in the Recording Arts program, helping young artists record their songs and record their demos.
"To see 40 in the room with young people making their first kind of demos and he's executive producing was just such a special experience to watch," he says. "These kids don't really know what they're getting right now because they don't understand how successful 40 is going to be eventually. Seeing all of these people and talent and moments surround the organization, it gave us the confidence that we're doing the right thing, we’ve just got to keep pushing."
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40 has since produced diamond hits for Drake such as “Hold On We’re Going Home” and “Nice For What,” but continues mentorship and support on a community level. The initiative is also where Drex met some of the other key figures at OVO early on, including Oliver El-Khatib, Future The Prince, Niko Carino and Drake. The involvement and dedication that they poured into Drake’s burgeoning career in the late 2000s created a special energy in Toronto. He was already the hottest artist in the city, Drex recalls, but you could feel he was on the verge of becoming a global phenom – all while wearing his local connections on his sleeve.
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“You could see what was happening behind the scenes, and it was really special to see everyone rally around and build such an amazing brand around him," Drex says. "It was a time where you really started to believe in the city and the talent and the potential in the city and you were like, ‘Anyone can do anything from here. This is possible, it's happening right in front of us.'"
As the OVO brand began to grow and take shape, Drex joined in 2012 and became increasingly involved with the flagship stores and pop-ups, eventually becoming CFO and COO before being appointed as CEO in July 2024. The emphasis on culture and community that came with Remix has seamlessly carried over into this new role.
“Being so connected to community and young people all the years at Remix as founder, as an employee, as a volunteer and as a board member, that's helped me significantly understand what drives people, what motivates people, what makes things special to people,” Drex says.
For him, being community obsessed is essential for a business. “You need to understand the community around you, the consumers in the store and the customers online,” he says.
Drex wants to build OVO into a lasting legacy brand that is inevitably tied to its roots in Toronto. He sees the way OVO collections like the OVO x Toronto Raptors 2019 championship collaboration have become recognized and worn worldwide, while becoming an emblem for the city.
How OVO CEO Derek “Drex” Jancar’s Success Is Driven By Community Lane Dorsey
From Remix to OVO, Toronto has remained at the core of his work.
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“It's the nucleus of everything. It's the thing you constantly come back to and think about: 'Does this represent us, honestly and authentically?'” he explains. “It's where everyone worked on their skills and put blood, sweat and tears into their career paths. We obviously are global thinkers, but we're always coming from that place. That's our identity. It's shaped us and it's what makes us unique.”
Since succeeding El-Khatib as OVO’s CEO, Drex has made key new hires, opening the door to growth. He hopes to open twice as many stores in the future (OVO currently has 12 flagship stores worldwide) and push the digital consumer experience forward.
Drex says that the promotion to CEO has energized him in terms of drive and ambition. He praises El-Khatib as a “creative visionary that only comes around once in a lifetime,” while he categorizes himself as a builder.
“I like building things, I like building businesses. That’s what I got to do with Remix and that's what I've done a lot of here at OVO. I love having an idea from scratch and building it and executing it and seeing it happen in the real world.”
Drex’s vision is reflected in projects like the OVO Summit, which connects music and culture executives and speakers with young people and youth organizations and gives them inspiration and tools to build themselves.
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“It's really nice for young people to hear, ‘Oh, this person was just like me and then they just did a whole bunch of work and dedicated their career towards it and they never gave up and it worked out for them.I think that's what's inspiring,” he says.
Drex has levelled his way up to becoming CEO of OVO, but the fingerprints he left on Remix are still felt today. He still sits on the organization's Board of Directors, and The Remix Project continues to fulfill his mission, giving back to the city and sharing knowledge, experiences and resources.
"The legacy for me is that the program runs itself,” he says. “Right now, our executive director Abel [Lulseged], he’s a graduate of the program. For us to have the head of the organization be a graduate, that's the legacy that I'm looking for: education, opportunity employment and building career paths. I think the legacy needs to move with the participants and the next generation.”
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